North Tasmania

Well once again it’s been weeks since the last blog and we’ve been having such an amazing time in Tasmania. It has been such a fantastic surprise to explore Tasmania and find beautiful places, friendly people and relaxing experiences. We simply love it here…but we can see that the weather has been perfect most of the time and we are seeing it all at its best.

Since the last blog we travelled from Crayfish Creek to Wynyard along the north-west coast, then headed south again to a small town called Tullah. When we visited Trial Harbour (prior to the horrendous 4WD experience), we met a lovely couple from Victoria (Helen and Alex) who offered us their holiday house to use when they went back home. So we took up the offer and spent about 4 days (maybe 5…can’t even remember the days anymore!) enjoying their home at Tullah. Of course we explored the surrounds, first visiting Montezuma Falls via a 4WD track (I know Sue said never again, but hey we didn’t die the last time!). The falls are the largest single drop falls at 104 m…and can be viewed by a swaying footbridge 5 stories above the riverbed (see Doug’s video). We then went back to Zeehan (only 11 kms from the falls) to drive through the “Spray Tunnel”…an old mining tunnel shaped like a keyhole to take a boiler through the mountain. The dimensions are 3 m high x 2m wide…troopy just fitted. The next day we took a steam train ride on “Wee Georgie Wood”…the train goes around town and passes the house we were staying in. If you happen to be sitting on the toilet with the window open when the train goes by…well a little bit embarrassing! There were also a couple of dams in the vicinity and up at one dam wall we saw several platypus happily playing.

We started our northward travels again by passing through Cradle Mountain…however the weather had turned a bit wet and overcast, so we didn’t stop to explore any further than the heavily populated car park. We travelled on to Leven Canyon and camped the night. We were told by some campers to view the canyon in the morning, it would be worth it. So not being morning people at all…we made the extreme sacrifice of getting up before 9 am. Well it was worth it! It was (well words can’t describe, and the pictures do not do the canyon justice)…morning sunlight on the mountains, mist rising and falling over the tree tops and a roaring river below.

We then travelled through some glorious countryside to Burnie and on to a lovely town called Penguin…where of course they have run with the theme and not only have the Big Penguin, but penguin rubbish bins, penguin murals and anything penguin you could think of. From there we travelled to Sheffield, south of Devonport, where the town has reinvented itself by painting murals depicting life in the area on their public walls. There are some fantastic art pieces to see and worth the visit.

We decided to bypass Devonport (as we will explore the town when we finally leave Tasmania) and went south to Launceston. We decided to visit a town called Carrick on the way, as we were told there was a caravan and campervan gathering. At first we were told 400 caravans would be there, then it was 600 and finally in the town the number exploded to 1000. So we had a perverse desire to see this many caravans in one place…well it was packed, vans parked head to nose…not for us…we like to be well away from all the other tourists.

So once again since we knew we would be back to Launceston later, we just visited the east side of the Tamar River that connects Launceston to the sea. Absolutely beautiful, and surprising how much land all along the river without houses …oh to be rich and buy up a million dollar view for a heck of a lot less! Well next thing we know we found ourselves on the “Wine Route”, so a tasting was in order…yes we did buy and are still happily drinking.

The next part of our journey has been along the north-east coast…off the beaten track a bit. Most people take the route to Scottsdale and then on to St Helens and the Bay of Fires. We will get there the long way. At present we are at Cape Naturaliste north of the Bay of Fires. We have the campground and beach to ourselves, so we have indulged in a little “naturaliste” ourselves. Swimming and sunbathing in mid-March! So here we are again, stopped for a few days in sunshine and beautiful surrounds feeling sorry for all you poor souls suffering the daily grind at home.




1. Map of Travels (North Tasmania), 2. Early morning cuppa at Leven Canyon, 3. Leven Canyon, 4. Big Penguin, 5. Sheffield mural, 6. Doug with sickly wombat, 7. Weymouth, North East Tasmania, 8. Cape Naturaliste, N.E. corner